The pilot program is now available to low and moderate income senior homeowners who have proprietary reverse mortgages. Previously, only homeowners with a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) were eligible for program consideration. .

Keep Your Home California also recently streamlined the counseling process, allowing homeowners to receive the mortgage assistance much faster.

The pilot program, which started in early 2015, was established to help homeowners 62 years or older who are at risk of losing their home to foreclosure after getting behind on their reverse mortgage property-related expenses.

“The taxes are so high, and they go up every year. I just didn’t have enough income.” Verna H.

Although homeowners receive income from reverse mortgages, they are still responsible for property-related expenses, including property taxes and homeowners insurance. And fast-rising home prices have a financial effect on senior homeowners with reverse mortgages, especially those who live on fixed incomes.

“The taxes are so high, and they go up every year,” says Verna H., who bought her home in Southern California in 2005 and received a reverse mortgage on the property two years later. “I just didn’t have enough income.”

It’s an all-too common concern for senior homeowners. But Keep Your Home California’s reverse mortgage assistance program definitely helps.

“It saved our lives,” says Joanne H., a homeowner with a reverse mortgage in Central California who has benefited from Keep Your Home California. “The weight it took off … you just don’t know. We were going to lose our home.”

Keep Your Home California’s Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program has helped Verna, Joanne and many other seniors avoid foreclosure and get back on solid financial ground.

“It was a real lifesaver to me,” says Jeanette M., who moved into her Southern California home in 1999 and received a reverse mortgage several years ago. After her husband passed away, her already tight budget became even more difficult. “It was not a pretty picture. We were way in the hole.”

The details about the program

Special counseling from a HUD approved nonprofit agency allows seniors to assess their financial situation and helps them manage their delinquent property-related expenses. In addition to reinstating qualifying homeowners’ past-due expenses, the Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program can also provide up to 12 months of additional assistance for future expenses, in order to help get homeowners back on their feet. Senior homeowners must meet county-by-county income limits and be able to document an eligible financial hardship such as — loss of income, a divorce, a death in the family or extraordinary medical expenses – in order to qualify for the free mortgage-assistance program.

Homeowners must also live in the home with the reverse mortgage and demonstrate their ability to make the property expenses going forward.

“People are scared because they don’t think the program can help, but it’s not that way,” says program recipient Jennie M., who lives in Central California. “It’s a positive step that can help you.”

Keep Your Home California has set aside about $10 million for the program, enough to help about 830 seniors. The average senior homeowner will receive about $13,000. As of December 31, 2016, 537 homeowners received $6.7 million in assistance through the program.

Hard-hit seniors behind on their reverse mortgage-related payments, including property taxes and homeowner’s insurance, could get a much-needed helping hand from Keep Your Home California.

The free mortgage-assistance program has announced a new pilot program to help low- and moderate-income senior homeowners 62 years and older who are at risk of losing their home to foreclosure after getting behind on their reverse mortgage-related payments.

The Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program, announced in mid-February, will help homeowners with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured reverse mortgages to qualify for as much as $25,000 in assistance. Homeowners must have an FHA Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) in order to be eligible for the program.

Along with the financial assistance, homeowners will receive budget counseling and may receive up to 12 months of additional assistance for future property expenses to ensure homeowners get back on their feet.

Senior homeowners must meet the program’s county-by-county income limits and have endured a financial hardship – a cut in pay, a job loss, a divorce, death in the family, or extraordinary medical bills – in order to qualify for help.

Homeowners must also live in the home with the reverse mortgage and be able to make the property expenses going forward.

Thousands of senior homeowners have used the FHA HECM product, and many have experienced a change in their financial situation beyond their control. Many of these senior homeowners with reverse mortgages are in the Central Valley, the Chico/Redding region of Northern California and the High Desert of Southern California.

These six companies handle a large majority of the FHA HECM reverse mortgages in California.

Keep Your Home California has set aside $25 million for the Reverse Mortgage Assistance Pilot Program, enough funds to help about 1,400 homeowners.

If you would like more information about the program, please call Keep Your Home California at 888-954-KEEP (5337) or visit www.KeepYourHomeCalifornia.org (those more comfortable speaking Spanish should visit http://conservatucasacalifornia.org/ ). The counseling center is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. Translators are available, so counseling sessions can be conducted in virtually any language.

Image courtesy of Renjith Krishnan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Keep Your Home California

Keep Your Home California is a $2 billion federal program run by the state, focused on helping low and moderate income families avoid foreclosure, stay in their homes, and maintain an affordable mortgage payment for long-term homeownership.